Fast Track and Direct Entry Privacy Policy

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1. Summary

This Fast Track and Direct Entry Privacy Policy (this "Policy") describes the types of personal information, which the College of Policing ('The College') and our partners (collectively, "the police service", "we" or "us") may collect, use or share as part of the Fast Track and Direct entry programmes.

The handling of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and relevant Data Protection legislation. The College is registered with the Information Commissioner as a 'Data Controller' [registration no: Z3458257]. As such we are obliged to ensure that all personal data is held and processed in accordance with the law.

The College takes that responsibility very seriously and takes great care to ensure that personal data is handled appropriately in order to secure and maintain individuals' trust and confidence in the College.

The identifiable information that you provide to the College of Policing as an applicant for a position with the College or our policing partners (your "personal data") will be used for recruitment, employment, appointment and related purposes. Your personal data will be protected in accordance with this Policy and applicable law. As set out below, personal data includes any identifiable information about you that you or anyone else may provide (on your or the College of Policing's behalf) in the context of an application for a position with College or our policing partners.

For information on the College of Policing's general privacy notice or cookie policy, please click the relevant link:

Personal information is being collected for the purposes of facilitating the Fast Track and Direct Entry Programmes and is a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us.

Taking part in any of the programmes is not mandatory, but if you decide to apply, your information will be processed for the above lawful basis in order to provide effective recruitment options and improve the standard of Policing.

3. Collection of Personal Data

The College of Policing and our police service partners use various methods to collect personal data in order to evaluate the suitability of a person's [continued] appointment / employment to the College of Policing or to a local police force.

Such methods may include:

Any applications you make to the College or to our police service partners online, via email or via paper submission.

Any information supplied to us via third parties including (but not limited to) references that you have nominated.

This Policy will govern all such additional Candidate Data.

Candidates should be aware that providing false information during any of the steps of the application process may constitute a criminal offence and is very likely to lead to the rejection of your application, the retraction of any security clearance status or termination of any subsequent employment.

4. Purposes for Processing Personal Data

The College of Policing and our police service partners may process your personal data for legitimate human resources purposes as set out in this policy.

making a decision about whether an individual should be hired / appointed including the conducting of security clearance / vetting checks, which may or may not be conducted by other government police / security agencies;

the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring;

maintaining appropriate record-keeping related to hiring practices;

any additional purposes set out in the applications or submissions you complete.

Candidates, employees and officers are also asked to note the following additional purposes:

4.1 Research and Statistics

The College of Policing may collect candidate, employee, officer feedback and opinions periodically (e.g. surveys) for business purposes, such as improving processes. In addition, the College may process information gathered about you as part of this process for analysing our employment / appointment processes including (but not limited to) advertising, hiring / appointment, training, promotion, attrition and outcomes.

Such analysis may be conducted by the College or our external police-related organisations and academic partners, and may lead to the publication / official reporting of any research results compiled. However, such publications will only publish accumulated statistical data and will not, under any circumstances, publish any personal data about you unless specifically stated and / or consent obtained.

You are free to choose whether to respond to any surveys sent to you by the College or not, and you will not suffer reprisals for your decision.

4.2 Transparency Requirements

Candidates, employees and officers should be aware that the College of Policing and the police service have provided a firm commitment to the public, our members and the UK government that we will operate transparently (where it is appropriate to do so). In addition, we are also subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, requiring us to publish / disclose information that is in the public interest. Such information may include the actions, activities and other information processed by us about you in your official capacity while you are employed with, or appointed by us. This commitment / requirement does not affect your 'privacy' rights.

4.3 Disapproved Register

Candidates, employees and officers should also be aware that any officer who is found to be guilty of any offence, is subject to gross misconduct proceedings, or, resigns / leaves the College / police service before any action / proceedings take place may be added to the Police Service Disapproved Register. This commitment / requirement does not affect your 'privacy' rights.

5. Types of Personal Data

The types of personal data we may obtain include:

Work history and experience;

Education, including professional qualifications and memberships;

Pay, benefits and compensation history;

Employer feedback, references and any other details of past employers or other people you have nominated for us to contact;

The College of Policing and our police service partners reserve the right to process the above information for the purposes of national security, the prevention and detection of crime, and the apprehension of offenders. Whilst we will endeavour to notify you of such processing, there may be occasions that such notifications will act in contrary to these purposes, which will necessitate the need to process this information without notification.

6. Security and Confidentiality

The College of Policing takes the security of all personal data under our control very seriously. We will comply with the relevant parts of the GDPR relating to security, and seek to comply with the Association of Chief Police Officers' Community Security Policy and relevant parts of the ISO27001 Information Security Standard.

We will ensure that appropriate policy, training, technical and procedural measures are in place, including audit and inspection, to protect our manual and electronic information systems from data loss and misuse, and only permit access to them when there is a legitimate reason to do so, and then under strict guidelines as to what use may be made of any personal data contained within them. These procedures are continuously managed and enhanced to ensure up-to-date security.

Please be aware that emails you send to us from an unaccredited email address, and those that we may send to you to your unaccredited email address, are not secure as email messages can be intercepted. We will hold your information securely, but there can be no guarantee of privacy with email communication as above. Therefore, we advise you to not email any information which, if disclosed to unrelated third parties, would be likely to cause you damage or distress. You should perform your own virus checks on any emails you receive.

We suggest that you encrypt your email and any attachments and password protect the attachment and notify us of the password by separate communication.

7. Retention Periods

The information you submit will be held in accordance with this data privacy statement for a period of 6 years for unsuccessful candidates, and the duration of employment / appointment, plus 6 years for successful candidates. All personal data will be deleted after this time.

You are encouraged to ensure that the candidate information you provide to the College of Policing is kept up to date, and notify us of any information which is inaccurate or out of date during the selection process.

8. Information sharing

It may be necessary to disclose some personal data to a supplier or contractor organisations supplying services on the College of Policing's behalf, who require the use and/or creation of personal information about candidates, employees or officers. Such processing will be subject to strict contractual agreements, which will require any data processor or third party data controller to abide by the requirements of the College of Policing's Privacy and Security policies. It may also be necessary to disclose personal information so as to protect the legal interests and other rights / requirements of the College of Policing (for example, employment tribunal proceedings).

It may be necessary to utilise the services of international suppliers, which may necessitate the processing of your candidate, employment or appointment data. However, we will do so only for the purposes described in this Policy. When we transfer your personal data to other countries, we will take steps to ensure the same level of protection for that personal data as is set out in this Policy unless otherwise required by applicable laws.

It may be necessary to transfer some or all of your candidate, employment or appointment data to other countries, where it is required for the purposes of national security, prevention and detection of crime and / or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders. Whilst we will endeavour to notify you of such processing, there may be occasions that such notifications will act in contrary to these purposes, which will necessitate the need to process this information without notification.

9. Rights

Individuals have various rights under the GDPR. Candidates, officers and employees are asked to refer to the College of Policing's Privacy Notice for more information about your rights.

10. Changes to this Policy

The College of Policing may need to modify this Policy as needed, for example, to comply with changes in business operations or laws and regulations. The College of Policing will post all changes to this Policy on our Intranet and Internet sites.

11. Contact Us

Any individual with concerns over the way the College of Policing handles their personal data may contact our Data Protection Officer as below:

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